Why do you Want to be a Hero?
by purpleswans
Summary: For Almei week day 6 (AU/Crossover.) On her first day at Yuei High School's Hero course, May has soe interesting encounters with some old and new faces.


**Remember a couple of years ago when I said I didn't really like AUs that much? Well, turns out it isn't that I dislike them, it's just that when I make them they have to be overly convoluted things that include multiple backstories and a cast of characters to keep everyone straight. The only story I could think of that I've been into recently and was willing to put my FMA children in (i.e. not Tokyo Ghoul) was Boku no Hero Academia. Please enjoy.  
**

 **Disclaimer: I own neither FMA or BNHA.**

* * *

 _Cast of characters:_

May Chang

Quirk: surface healing

Description: Manipulate the upper layer of whatever she touches, whether it is the ground or human skin. Allows her to close wounds and move the ground under people

Additional info: Also uses a variety of knifes to fight

* * *

Edward Elric

Quirk: Creation

Description: Can make anything he wants out of thin air, so long as he understands the composition.

Additional info: lost his leg and arm to a villain attack, now uses metal prosthetics.

* * *

Alphonse Elric

Quirk : reconstruction

Description: Can manipulate any inanimate object he touches

Additional information: Has 3rd degree burns all over his body due to a villain attack, now always wears metal armor to protect himself.

* * *

Winry Rockbell

Quirk: Linkage

Description: Is able to form a psychic link between people, and sometimes with inanimate objects

Additional info: not interested in becoming a hero. Wants to go into support after realizing how her quirk was able to help Ed get his limbs back.

* * *

Ling Yao

Quirk: unbreakable shield

Description: Can harden the outer surface of his body.

Additional info: Uses a large sword to fight.

* * *

Lan Fan

Quirk: aura sense

Description: can sense any living person in the vicinity.

Additional info: Typically works with Ling Yao

* * *

Riza Hawkeye

Quirk: Hawk's Eye

Description: can see for long distances, also used for precision targeting

Additional info: retired from hero work, Al and May's homeroom teacher

* * *

Roy Mustang

Quirk: Fire snap

Description: can produce anything from a slow burning flame to an explosion with a snap of his fingers.

Additional info: retired from hero work. Now Ed, Ling, and Lan Fan's homeroom teacher.

* * *

May walked through the entrance to Yuei on her first day of school feeling optimistic. She had gotten into the school of her dreams, in the hero course no less, and if she was really lucky she might get to meet her celebrity crush, the star of last year's freshman sports festival, Edward Elric!

Today is going to be the best day of my life! She would later on want to slap herself for thinking so naively.

Someone bumped into her from behind, almost knocking her over.

May turned around. "Hey! Watch where you're…"

She could see him. Edward Elric was right there. Only a few feet in front of him.

Unconsciously, May let out an undignified fan girl squeak.

Edward Elric opened his mouth. May knew, she had always known, it would be love at first sight, he was going to ask her to marry him…

"Would you move, shrimp? Some of us have to get to class."

May's whole world shattered.

A long, somewhat familiar arm wrapped around May's shoulders. "Come on Ed, can you lay off a little? It's my kid sister, and it's her first day of school."

May's face turned beet red. Now she recognized who that was Ling Yao, her older half-brother. She knew that he was going to Yuei, but had hoped that she'd the able to avoid him as much as possible.

She pushed Ling's arm away. "I don't need your help!"

"Aww, don't be like that," Ling whined. "We haven't see each other in a couple of years, and now we're going to school together. We should catch up!"

"Well, I'm out of here." Edward Elric walked away. "See you in class, Ling."

"Yeah, see you!" Ling called back.

May pushed him away again. "What's your problem? You've never wanted to be all buddy-buddy and loving siblings before!"

Ling just shrugged. "Eh, I guess a year away from dad's dysfunctional influence did wonders for me. Also, seeing how normal people feel about their siblings may have helped."

"What are you talking about?" May asked. "Look, my day has already fallen apart since my crush just turned out to be an absolute jerk. I don't need you to mess things up as well."

Ling covered his mouth, trying to hold back laughter. "Are you.. are you saying… that you had a crush… on Ed of all people?"

May couldn't deal with this anymore. "I'm leaving. I need to get to class."

"Wait, wait wait!" Ling grabbed her arm. "I'm serious about catching up. Do you want to have lunch together? I'll even ditch Ed if it would make things less awkward."

"Again, why do you care?" May asked. "I thought the whole reason you decided to become a hero in the first place was so you could rub it in all your less-accomplished siblings' faces."

"Is that really.. oh, well I guess I can't blame you for thinking that." Ling admitted. "May, why did you decide to become a hero?"

"Why would you want to know that?" May crossed her arms.

"Because, being a hero is hard work," Ling admitted, "and this school is going to test your limits. You need to have resolve, and just wanting to prove yourself to dad isn't going to cut it."

* * *

May sat in her homeroom, waiting for class to start. She couldn't stop thinking about Ling's question. For some reason, she'd never really thought about why she wanted to be a hero, only that it was something she knew she should strive for.

"Um, May Chang?"

May looked up. "Yes?"

Someone who apparently was wearing an ENTIRE SUIT OF ARMOR was standing by her desk. "Hey, I just wanted to come by and apologize for my brother's actions earlier. I saw the whole thing, and you seemed really bothered by it."

May blinked. "Um, who's your brother again?"

"He's Edward Elric. I'm the little brother, Alphonse." It wasn't obvious from the armor, but May could tell he had a cheerful smile.

May sat up straight. "He's your older brother?"

"Yep!" Alphonse clearly hadn't noticed the disgust in her voice. "And your older brother is Ling Yao, right? Ed considers him to be his best friend, so I think it would be cool if we all hung out together."

May shifted awkwardly in her seat. "I don't know…"

Luckily, she was saved from having to give a more significant answer when the teacher called class to order.

* * *

When lunchtime came, May couldn't ignore the frantic waving in her direction coming from her formerly-estranged half-brother. As such, she resigned herself and walked towards his table with a tray.

"May! You actually came!" Ling actually stood up and hugged her, of all things.

"For the record, I still don't know why you suddenly want to act like we're close," May mentioned.

"Like I said, a year at this place really changed my perspective. Well, I guess most of it might have been hearing my new friend gush on and on about his little brother." Ling guided her to an open seat across from him. "Oh, and I'm not sure if you remember Lan Fan?"

May looked at the girl sitting next to Ling. Two years previously, she'd conducted a sneak attack on May when she and Ling were sparring. "We've met."

Lan Fan nodded, eyeing May with a look that somehow combined wary caution and forced acceptance.

"Yay! We all know each other!" Ling sat down and started on his food. "So May, have you made any new friends yet?"

May raised and eyebrow. "I've been in the classroom for half a day. I haven't gotten the chance to get to know anyone yet."

"Eh…" Ling was scratching his chin, probably figuring out how stupid his question had been. And that the had stolen probably her most important socializing opportunity by insisting she ear lunch with him. "Maybe you'd talked to someone between classes?"

May thought back. "Well, Alphonse Elric did come up to talk to me. He apologized on behalf of his brother."

That made Ling laugh. "I hope he doesn't plan on apologizing every time Ed blows up at someone, or he'll spend the whole school year saying 'sorry, sorry!'"

"He also mentioned that you and Edward are practically best friends," May added.

"Yep!" Ling was smiling. "I've been friends with Ed since we first met. I've even gone over to hand out at his house after school, which is how I know Al so well. Honestly, that kid has been though so much, he's a real trooper."

May looked up. "What do you mean?"

Ling seemed to realize what he just said. "Oh! Err, that's just something… I really shouldn't say. It's not my story to tell."

May stared at him suspiciously, but Ling wouldn't say anything else in the subject.

* * *

"Alphonse? Can I talk to you for a second?" May had approached the armored boy during one of their breaks.

The helmet turned in May's direction. "Sure! What do you want to talk about?"

May shifted a little, nervous. "Actually, it's kind of personal, so I'm not sure you'll want other people eavesdropping."

Al looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "Let's go to the back of the room."

May followed him to a corner far away from their classmates. She cleared her throat. "When I was talking with Ling during lunch, he mentioned something about you… having gone through some stuff. He wouldn't tell me what he meant, but…"

"You want to know about what happened to me?" Al asked gently.

May nodded. "I know it's probably really personal, and I'll understand if you don't want to tell me, we only just met…"

Alphonse cut her off. "No, it's fine. To be honest, I kind of expected people to ask me about my armor at some point and make me talk about this."

"I did wonder about that," May admitted.

Alphonse took a deep breath. "If you've heard about my brother, then you probably heard that his right arm and left leg are made of metal."

May nodded. "I heard he lost them in a villain attack."

"Yes. What most people don't know is that I got hurt then as well. The gas line in our house blew up, and I got badly burned in the resulting fire."

May gasped in horror.

Alphonse continued his story without a second thought. "Brother lost his leg when our house fell on him, but he knew that I was under the rubble and got his arm crushed trying to get me out. We probably would have died if the Flame Hero, Mr. Mustang, hadn't noticed us and gotten us to a hospital."

May felt a teardrop slide down her cheek.

"Brother was able to make his new limbs with his quirk, and we discovered that our friend Winry's quirk allowed him to make them actual extensions of his body. At that point the doctors had already told him that between the risk of infection and some respiratory problems I wouldn't be able to have a normal life, but Ed came up with the idea to create this armor, which provides protection while allowing me to have a semi-normal life. Thanks to Winry's quirk, it's really just a second skin, and I don't have any issues feeling or using my quirk." Al looked more directly at May. "It's not perfect, but I'm better now than I had been."

May swallowed back more tears. "Is that why you decided to become a hero? To get revenge on the villain who did this to you?"

Al shook his head. "Not really. I mean, he's already in prison, so he won't hurt anyone else. I can't say that's true for brother though."

May looked at her feet, embarrassed. "Why do you want to be a hero then?"

Al tilted his helmet. "I can't say for sure. Part of it is that I want to help brother. Other than that… I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did. I want to be a hero to stop bad things from happening."

"I see," May mumbled. She decided to go back to her seat, contemplating all this new information.

* * *

"Ling! Wait up!" May called out. It was the end of the school day, and everyone, including her and her brother, were heading home for the day.

"May! You're actually wanting to talk to me!" Ling looked pleasantly surprised.

"Where are you going?" May asked.

"I was going to hang out at Ed's place. I can understand if you don't want to come…" Ling explained.

May shook her head. "No, I don't mind. I can hang out with Alphonse."

Ling beamed. "Great! I'm glad you want to come. The whole gang is going to be there. You already know Ed and Lan Fan and Al of course, which only leaves Winry, who I don't think you've met yet."

"I think Al mentioned her," May admitted.

"She's known both brothers pretty much their entire lives," Ling explained, "and I swear she's practically Ed's wife already. She's in the support course."

May raised an eyebrow at that information, but decided to change the subject. "Hey, Ling? Why do you want to become a hero?"

Ling was silent for a minute, thinking. "I'll admit, at first my only reason for coming here was to impress dad. But as I got to know Ed and got to know more about the profession, I realized that was a stupid reason to do anything. Then, during class, I realized that although a hero is someone who protects the people, they themselves are largely dependent on the opinion of the people. In some ways, the only difference between heroism and villainy is the opinions of society. I think that's an interesting relationship, and want to be a part of that."

May listened intently. She wasn't sure she really understood what he meant, but he did seem passionate enough. "Huh."

Ling looked down at her. "So? Have you figured out why you want to be a hero?"

May bit her lip. "I don't know if this is good enough but… after hearing about the things that have happened to Alphonse and other people, I feel like I'm not as invested in this as I could be. But, I want to help people like them. And right now, the world has given me the opportunity to try and be a hero. I want to see where this takes me."

Ling actually gave May a smile and put his hand on her head. "As far as I'm concerned, that's just as good a reason as any."

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